Spoiler alert: Cal, Georgia try to take down top 2

POSTEDNovember 10, 2010 11:04 p.m.

By Ralph Russo
AP Football Writer

If you can’t be a contender, you might as well be a spoiler.California and Georgia, winding their ways through mediocre seasons, can jolt the national title chase and give fans of No. 3 TCU and No. 4 Boise State a huge gift on Saturday.The Golden Bears (5-4) host No. 1 Oregon. The Bulldogs (5-5) are at No. 2 Auburn.Oddsmakers are expecting the Tigers to have tougher time than the Ducks. Auburn is favored by 8½ at home against Georgia (5-5). Maybe the guys in Las Vegas think Cam Newton and the Tigers will be distracted by reports that the star quarterback’s recruitment has drawn at least some attention from the NCAA.The Ducks are 19½-point favorites at a stadium where they have lost three straight games.Oregon and Auburn also hold the top two spots in the BCS standings. It’s become apparent that no matter how much winning TCU and Boise State do, they need the Ducks or Tigers to lose to have a shot at playing for the national championship.No. 1 in the AP poll has been beaten twice this season — South Carolina knocked off Alabama and Wisconsin beat Ohio State. Oklahoma was in first-place in the BCS when it lost to Missouri.Yes, they were all upsets, but all those top-ranked teams lost on the road to ranked opponents. The last time the No. 1 team in the AP poll lost to an unranked team was Sept. 25, 2008, when Oregon State upset Southern California.You’d have to go back to 2007 to find the last time an unranked team beat No. 1 in November. That wild season it happened twice, when Illinois beat top-ranked Ohio State on Nov. 11 and Arkansas beat LSU on Nov. 23.Illinois and Arkansas each had seven victories at the time of their big wins. The Illini ended up in the Rose Bowl that season and Arkansas went to the Cotton Bowl.To find an upset that would be more akin to California knocking off Oregon, turn back to 2002. Oklahoma was No. 1 on Nov. 9 when it went to College Station, Texas, and lost 30-26 to a Texas A&M team that was 5-5.As for No. 2 losing to an unranked team, the last time was in 2007, when it happened on five separate occasions.